Political detainees stage hunger strike in Sudan

The Sudanese Congress Party, on Friday, said political detainees in the country have staged an open-ended hunger strike to protest their detention since 25 October and the “denial of their legal rights”, Anadolu News Agency reports.

“The political detainees who are being held in the cells of the security apparatus near the Shendi station in the capital, Khartoum, staged an open hunger strike starting today, Friday,” the party said in a statement, without referring to their numbers.

“The strike step comes because of their continued arbitrary detention since the 25 October coup and depriving them of their most basic legal rights,” the party said.

READ: New protests in Sudan against military takeover

It noted that the detainees on hunger strike included Khaled Omar Youssef, the Cabinet Affairs Minister in the dissolved government, Political Secretary of the Sudanese Congress Party, Sharif Muhammad Othman, and leader of Federal Assembly, Jaafar Hassan.

“There are many political detainees from parties and resistance committees who were taken to unknown places,” it said, without adding further details.

There is no figure announced by the Sudanese authorities about the number of political detainees in the country since the military takeover.

Before the military takeover on 25 October, Sudan was administered by a sovereign council of military and civilian officials which was overseeing the transition period until elections in 2023 as part of a precarious power-sharing pact between the military and the Forces of Freedom and Change coalition.

READ: Deputy head of Sudan Sovereign Council announces support for PM